


Oceanus and Tethys

by quartzguts



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Identity Reveal, M/M, Reunions, Sexual Tension, beach date, demyx as the master of masters, i wanted to write about demyx coming to xigbar's rescue and this happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-07 19:57:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20981516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quartzguts/pseuds/quartzguts
Summary: A beach date, mortal peril, gross kissing, and a damsel in distress. A remarkably interesting day in an immortal life defined by monotony, and a reunion a thousand years in the making.Or: Xigbar takes Demyx to the beach.





	Oceanus and Tethys

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't edit this as much as i should have. whoops!
> 
> warning for vomit (brief but gross)

\---

The new kid is annoying the shit out of everyone but Xigbar.

For a freshly born nobody, Demyx is remarkably energetic. Most of them spend at least a few days in a zombie like state, sleeping often and blankly staring at anyone who tries to talk to them. Demyx was only like that for a few hours before he remembered how to speak. There's something strange about him. Xigbar guesses it must have something to do with who his somebody was. Whatever the reason, it’s refreshing to see someone break the mold of monotony that he’s come to expect from the others.

For all Demyx’s extra energy, though, he's remarkably lazy. He whines when Saïx sends him out on the most basic reconnaissance missions. He'll eventually agree to go under Saïx's relentless glare, but his reports are vague and near incomprehensible. When Saïx's scolding doesn't yield results, he complains to Xemnas. Xemnas predictably avoids his responsibilities as leader and passes the job onto Xigbar.

He takes it in stride, gives Demyx his next mission, and sends him on his way with a sleazy smile. He’s perfected the art of mixing compliments with threats over the years; Demyx should be both running high on the confidence Xigbar showed in him and terrified of the thought of failing. Xigbar kicks back on the couch and waits for him to return.

He takes five hours, which is way, way longer than he needed. When he returns, he has a smug smile on his face and a report in his hand, which is crumpled from being in his pocket. Xigbar only bothers reading the first paragraph.

"How scatterbrained are you?" he asks. Demyx’s report is scribbled in smudged black ink and is barely legible. A quick skim through it tells Xigbar the information it contains is fundamentally useless. "Seriously, kid, you're killing me here."

"Sorry, Xiggy," Demyx says. The nickname makes Xigbar's eye twitch. Maybe his earlier threat wasn’t clear enough - Demyx isn’t even slightly afraid of him. "I'll be more careful next time."

"You'd better be," Xigbar says. "Because I'm going with you."

"Whaaat?" Demyx jumps back with mock surprise. “Why? I can totally do this on my own, man!"

_ Kid has a whole lot of personality for someone who was born literally two weeks ago_, Xigbar thinks. _ A real specific type of personality, too. _"The boss doesn't agree. Look, kid, let's make this easier on ourselves, 'kay? I go with you, you don't slack off, and we both get Xemnas off our backs. Good?"

Demyx pouts. "And what'll you do if I _ don't _work hard?"

"I'll hang you on the ceiling upside down and leave you there."

"Ugh, fine." Demyx slides up to Xigbar and takes his arm. "Where're we going, Xiggy?"

Xigbar just barely keeps himself from making real on his threat.

\---

They end up in Atlantica less than an hour later. The world is mostly sea, crashing waves of blue and green under a bright, happy sky. Their mission is on an uninhabited island. It’s mostly dense forest with a sandy beach at its edges. The goal is simple: categorize and collect materials in the forest, and report back when they’re done. Demyx whines like a little kid when he realizes they won't be going in the water. Xigbar snorts at him.

"I mean, come on, Xiggy!" Demyx says. He's pointing at the ocean wildly. There's a mischievous glint in his bright blue eyes. "Just one dip!"

"Nope," Xigbar says. "We’ll be wasting our time. And trust me, I don’t want to have to stay out here with you any longer than necessary."

"Oh, come on! That’s mean!”

Xigbar chuckles. "Fine, whatever. But we have to finish the mission first," he says.

That serves as better motivation than his earlier threat. Demyx is just as lazy with the investigation, but he doesn't drag his feet as much with writing his report. It’s mostly legible, and the information is more or less coherent. Xigbar judges it to be decent enough when they’re done.

“Whew! Finally,” Demyx says. “Now, let’s get swimming!”

“Stupid kid,” Xigbar mutters, but there’s a level of fondness he can’t stop from leaking in. It’s faint, but Demyx reminds him of half-forgotten days spent in the Clock Tower, a mug of hot chocolate in his hands while the Master curled up next to him on the couch, fake shivering from the draft. He’d do it to embarrass Luxu. Xigbar remembers it with a smile.

He’s changed. He wouldn’t be embarrassed to snuggle with the Master now. He wouldn’t be embarrassed to do a lot of things with the Master - or rather, _ to _ the Master.

“You go ahead,” Xigbar says, watching Demyx unzip his coat. He slides out of his own and hangs it on a bush that’s growing at the edge of the forest, right where it meets the beach.

“It’ll be boring if it’s just me,” Demyx says, grinning. “C’mon, Xiggy, swim with me.”

“No, thanks,” Xigbar says, but he doesn’t resist when Demyx wraps a hand around his arm and pulls him forward.

“Just for a little bit?” Demyx kicks off his boots. Xigbar finds himself following suit without thinking. Before he knows what’s happening, his shirt and pants are gone, too, and he and Demyx are standing at the water’s edge in nothing but their boxers.

“You don’t have some kinda mind control power, do you?” he asks offhandedly. Demyx looks at him like he’s confused. Xigbar guesses that’s fair; Demyx couldn’t know how unusual he is, how rare it is for Xigbar to meet someone he vibes with on such a deep level. When it happens, though, when Xigbar finds someone who reminds him of the Master in even the slightest detail, he falls into line easily. He follows after them like a lost puppy until they die and he jumps back on his preordained track.

Demyx is still staring, and he’s trying very hard to keep his eyes above Xigbar’s chest. His pale face is quickly reddening, and Xigbar doesn’t think it’s because of sunburn. He grins, teeth wide, shark-like. “You gonna jump in, or what?”

That snaps Demyx out of his reverie. “Oh, right,” he says, clearly nervous, rubbing the back of his neck. His hair is longer there than on the sides. Xigbar thinks it looks stupidly adorable. “Bet I can beat you to the sandbar!”

They run into the waves. The water is deliciously cool, and the ocean spray is just salty enough that it’s pleasant instead of gross. The water is clear; Xigbar can see straight through it. There are little fish swimming around their ankles which quickly dart away when they come crashing through.

“Gotta move faster than that, old man!” Demyx yells, and he dives into the sea.

Xigbar would like to say he lets Demyx win the race, but it’s clear that he never stood a chance. Demyx is a lightning fast swimmer, more at home in his element than most of them are. The abilities assigned to nobodies seem somewhat random, only affected by the most superficial of their traits; Saïx got the moon because of Isa’s commitment to his moon-goddess-religion-aesthetic, Axel got fire because he’s the hothead, Vexen has an icy personality, Lexaeus is strong like the earth. His own dominion over gravity might just be because of the deep sitting pleasure he used to get from climbing up to the Clock Tower’s roof and leaning over the edge.

Demyx’s affinity with water is no joke, though. Maybe he was a professional swimmer in his other life, or even some sort of mer-person. It’s not like strict humanity is required for becoming a nobody, after all.

Xigbar reaches the sandbar several minutes later. Demyx mocks him by sticking his tongue out. Xigbar lets out a long, satisfied laugh.

The sandbar is pretty high, so the water only reaches their waists. Demyx sinks further down so it’s lapping at his chest. The ocean is calm, and they easily ride the few waves that crash over the sand. A little crab crawls over Xigbar’s feet. He waits for it to move onto the sand before he kicks back and starts to float.

“You might float away, you know,” Demyx says. He sounds calm, for once.

“Grab onto me, then.”

For the third time that day, Demyx’s arm wraps around his own. They float like that for a while, enjoying the waves. Demyx is thankfully silent. The wind blows gently over the water, pushing little waves over the sandbar and down towards the beach. A fish swims under Xigbar, big enough to leave a little current in its wake. The sun shines down gloriously. Xigbar relishes in how wonderful it all is, how different it is from the dreary city the Organization calls home.

Maybe the mundanity of this last leg of the plan is starting to get to him. He’d spent so many lifetimes running around doing whatever he pleased that focusing on one task for so long has gotten achingly boring. He used to be able to study for hours on end without tiring. Xigbar wonders if this is just part of getting older.

The fish swims back. The current returns. Then a patch of seaweed wraps around Xigbar’s foot.

“Um, Xiggy?” Demyx says.

“Hm?”

“There weren’t supposed to be any heartless here, right?”

Xigbar’s eye snaps open. The thing on his foot isn’t seaweed.

The heartless is hoisting him into the air mere seconds later. Xigbar shouts in surprise, ready to summon his guns, but then the damn thing smacks him down into the water. Saltwater rushes into his still open mouth and he swallows it on instinct, then gags when the heartless drags him back above the water’s surface.

There’s salt in his eye and mouth, and Xigbar can _ feel _the seawater churning in his stomach. He’s hanging upside down, which wouldn’t be much of a problem except that the damn thing is swinging him around like a ragdoll. The nausea makes him throw up the seawater, along with his lunch. His mouth burns with the acrid taste.

“Xiggy!” Demyx yells. He sounds like he’s far beneath Xigbar, which is good. The heartless hasn’t picked him up, too.

“Kid,” Xigbar coughs out, “get out of here!” He manages to get one hand up to rub the salt out of his eye. He opens it despite the pain.

With the way he’s being held in the air, he expects to see the sky. He sees the sea instead.

There’s a wall of water that’s as big as a tidal wave but is formed more like a pillar, cutting up from the sea’s surface. The heartless that’s still tossing him around looks like some sort of sea neon, except huge and with way, way more tentacles than it has any business having. It leans towards the water pillar like it doesn’t understand what’s happening, which is stupid because it must have summoned it.

At least, Xigbar thinks it must have until he sees Demyx in the middle of the pillar, looking utterly _ pissed_. He says something, and Xigbar is busy thinking _ you’re gonna swallow seawater, idiot _ when the pillar pulses with energy and a spear of water bursts out of it, skewering the heartless with perfect accuracy.

The tentacle wrapped around Xigbar’s foot shivers, then bursts with the rest of its body. Xigbar falls.

He slaps a hand over his nose and mouth to stop the water from rushing in again. He doesn’t need to, though, since the sea actually parts as he falls into it, forming a little bubble of air around him. He sinks for a bit before the water pushes at his back and he just floats, breathing, in the middle of the ocean. The sandbar rises towards the surface to his left. He could easily stand up, but his brain is too busy thinking _ hey, what the fuck _ to send the command to his limbs.

Demyx swims into his view a few moments later. He’s clearing holding his breath, but he’s also got his eyes open and isn’t crying from pain. He heaves over (so, so dramatic) in relief, then points up.

Xigbar slips the hand off of his mouth to shout _ I can’t swim without water, dumbass_, but apparently Demyx was talking to the air bubble, because suddenly he’s floating up without having to do anything. He breaches the surface less than a minute later. The cool air is murder against his screaming throat. He coughs again.

Demyx comes up right next to him. He immediately throws his arms around Xigbar’s neck.

“Xiggy!” he says, voice frantic and high pitched. “Are you okay?”

“Will be once we get out of this damn place….” Xigbar mutters. The words draw out another coughing fit.

“Right, yeah, of course,” Demyx says, and he grabs Xigbar and starts dragging him back to shore.

He mostly lets Demyx tug him along while he tries to process what just happened. His throat and mouth still taste disgusting and until he gets some nice, clean freshwater to drink, he’ll just have to deal with it. In the meantime, he focuses on rubbing the salt out of his good eye. Demyx swats at him after a while, muttering something about him making it worse.

Xigbar grumbles, but moves his hand to comb through his hair instead. It’s wet and tangled, and his hair tie is just barely hanging on at the edges. He runs his hand through it a few more times, trying to comb it out, when he notices something.

His eyepatch is gone.

“Where -” he starts to say, but then he’s coughing again.

Demyx places a soothing hand on his shoulder. “Wait until we get to shore, okay, Luxu?”

Xigbar nods, still coughing and panicking over the loss of his eyepatch. He lets Demyx pull him the rest of the way while he tries to focus on breathing.

They get back to shore without incident. Demyx cups his hands in the surf. When he pulls them up, there’s a decently sized water sphere hanging above them. He murmurs a few words that sound suspiciously like a spell, and the sand swirling around in it all falls out at once, along with hundreds of tiny salt crystals.

“Here.” Demyx pushes the sphere close to Xigbar’s face. “Drink up. Don’t give me that look! I purified it, no more sand or salt. I swear.”

Xigbar grunts and leans up to take a drink. It’s sort of like drinking out of Demyx’s hands. Xigbar tries not to think about it.

Demyx wasn’t lying. The water is refreshing and cool, and has none of the salty taste that still lingers all the way down Xigbar’s esophagus. His head clears as he drinks it.

Demyx runs to his coat and gets Xigbar a bandage for his eye, which is good because what Xigbar hates most about the injury is the way people stare at it. He’d usually just discard such a blatantly damaged body, but this is the endgame and he can’t just body-hop without completely losing Xemnas’s trust.

As Demyx ties off the bandage, Xigbar does a mental check of the situation. He isn’t actually injured, just a little shocked, probably because he hasn’t been caught so off-guard in a long time. Demyx is also way more powerful than he thought - than any of them thought. If Saix knew he was packing enough firepower to cast Waterga like it was nothing and cause salt to fall out of solution using magic, he wouldn’t be sending him on easy reconnaissance missions.

And -

Xigbar chokes on his last gulp. Demyx turns to him, worried, but Xigbar pins him with a look that’s downright murderous.

“Hey, Xiggy, you okay? You look -”

“What did you call me earlier.”

Demyx is already sweating from the sun and the fight. A drop runs down his forehead. “What, ‘Xiggy’? I know I didn’t ask if it was okay to nickname you. Look, I’ll stop using it, so -”

“Where,” Xigbar growls. “Did you learn the name _ Luxu_.”

Demyx freezes. The fear slips from his expression and is replaced with something closer to introspection. “Huh. I guess I _ did _ call you that, didn’t I?”

“Where,” Xigbar says again, because this is all wrong. The Master never told him anything about having an ally or enemy or _ anyone _ who’d know about the plan. Xigbar has taken painful, detailed steps to erase himself from history at every turn, to vary the gender and age and appearance of his vessels so no one can track him down, and he hasn’t used his real name anywhere for over a thousand years. He’d almost forgotten how it was pronounced, and definitely doesn’t remember how to spell it in his native language.

And now Demyx knows it. Somehow.

“Okay, calm down, Luxu. I can explain -”

Xigbar summons one of his guns the instant Demyx says his name again. He aims it right at Demyx’s heart, but it doesn’t seem to faze him. “- calm _ down_, jeez! You were always a little jumpy, but it looks like it’s gotten worse since the last time I saw you. Good thing I’m here to remind you how to relax, huh?”

“Who _ are _you?!” Xigbar shouts, voice still hoarse.

Demyx smiles. It’s a gentle smile, like that of a teacher dealing with a difficult student. “You forgot me? Seriously? I guess it has been a long time. That’s my fault, so I won’t blame you for it.” He places a hand on Xigbar’s gun and guides it down, slowly, until it’s pointing at the sand.

Xigbar stares. “You can’t be.”

“Aw, c’mon. You know in your heart it’s me.” Demyx reaches a hand out to cup Xigbar’s cheek. The feeling of skin against skin shocks Xigbar to his core.

“Master,” he whispers. “I didn’t think - didn’t you -”

“Hey, slow down. Plan out your words, remember? Deep breaths.” He sounds exactly like he did a thousand years ago when he was coaching Luxu on how to deal with his anxiety. The difference is this time Xigbar can see his face.

Xigbar breathes slowly. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

“What? I thought I made it clear I’d come back!” Demyx stares at him in shock. “Crap, did I mess up? I’m sorry -”

Xigbar grabs him by the shoulders and throws him down against the sand. Demyx is red from the sun but swiftly growing redder as Xigbar climbs over him. “Your instructions were perfect, as always, Master,” he says. “I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

“Hey, no problem, Xiggy!” Demyx squeaks.

Xigbar wonders if the Master was always this shy, if he would’ve reacted like this if Luxu had tried pinning him down back when he was younger and smaller, a baby-faced man of barely twenty years and still so naive. He thinks not. “Don’t call me that again.”

“Ah - !?”

Xigbar kisses him quickly, a chaste press of his lips against the edge of Demyx’s mouth. “Never call me _ Xiggy _ or _ Xigbar _ or any other name ever again. Not while we’re alone.” He leans further in, presses kisses to Demyx’s jaw. “Call me _ Luxu_.”

“Oh. Okay, yeah. I can do that.” Demyx snakes his arms around Xigbar’s shoulders as he keeps pressing closed mouth kisses against his jaw and neck. “Hey, this is nice, but mind kissing me for real?”

“My mouth still tastes like vomit.”

“I don’t mind!”

Xigbar sighs. “I should’ve expected as much. You pervert.”

“You’re the one asking me to call you by your real name!” Demyx says. He sounds stupidly offended.

“Yeah, ‘cause that’s romantic. Not perverted.”

Demyx pulls his arms off of Xigbar’s neck and crosses them over his chest. “I am a completely morally upstanding individual, and I resent your accusation to the contrary.”

“As if,” Xigbar chuckles. He gets up too quickly; he’s woozy and the sudden movement makes him sway. Demyx is up in a second to help steady him.

“You really are a mess without me, aren’t you,” Demyx murmurs. He sounds contemplative, almost sad, but not quite like he regrets what it implies.

“I can’t help it,” Xigbar replies. “You made me that way.”

Demyx doesn’t say anything in response. He doesn’t really need to.

They go back to the castle with wet hair sand in their clothes. They hand in Demyx’s report to Saïx, who looks disgusted by their appearances but otherwise accepts it without complaint. Then they go to one of the private bathrooms and shower. Xigbar sort of wants to try something, but his nervousness at being next to the Master for the first time in an eternity holds him back. There’s also the fact he’d no longer running on pure emotion and adrenaline and is therefore acutely aware of the fact that with the bandage gone, Demyx can clearly see the scar and taught skin around the grossest, most painful injury this body has seen.

So instead of doing what he wants, he washes Demyx’s hair and lets him do the same for him. Demyx gets most of the tangles out with shampoo and combs it to perfection after they get out and dry off.

“Your hair’s so _ long_,” Demyx remarks as he slides the brush through it. He’s been done for a while, but he keeps brushing like he never wants to do anything else. “You know, my hair was long back then, too.”

“It was?” Xigbar asks. He’d never actually seen the Master’s face. “What color?”

“Blonde,” Demyx says. “I took this body because it reminded me of my old one a little. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Although it’s not quite tall enough....”

“I think it’s fine,” Xigbar says. "Short is a good look on you."

"I'm only short compared to you, you tree." Demyx tosses the brush on the ground and leans in, burying his face in Xigbar’s hair. “You smell nice.”

Xigbar shivers. They’re both wearing shirts and pants now, but somehow this is even more intimate than the beach or the shower was: they’re in Xigbar’s _ room_. Xigbar rarely lets people bother him here, and the Master certainly had never visited his room in the Clock Tower when he was still Luxu. He’d said, while running a teasing hand down Luxu’s back, that it wouldn’t be proper. As if anything about their relationship was proper.

“Hey,” Demyx says. “Can I see your scar? I figured you didn’t want me looking at it earlier, but I’d like to see.”

Xigbar tenses up. Demyx runs a hand down his back, slipping under his shirt to feel his skin, still warm and slightly wet from the shower. “Okay,” Xigbar says.

He turns around. Demyx doesn’t have any visible reaction to seeing his ruined eye. After a minute he reaches out a hand to touch it. His fingers ghost over the wound.

“You’ve gone through so much for me,” Demyx murmurs. “Just how much pain have you felt?”

“It’s nothing,” Xigbar says automatically. “Being apart from you was much worse.”

“Aw, you’re so devoted,” Demyx coos. He leans forward and presses a featherlight kiss to Xigbar’s eye. “That’s my Luxu.”

“Yes,” Xigbar agrees. “Yours.”

\---


End file.
